A Federal High Court sitting, Lagos, Tuesday, convicted and sentenced a pharmacist, Mr Geoffrey Ezeukwu and a trader, Mr Moses Ajibor to three years and two years imprisonment each, for illegal dealing 200 kilogrammes of Ephedrine .
Justice Saliu Saidu, after reviewing the facts of the case today, convicted the defendants on one count each out of the five count and handed down a three years and two years imprisonment on each of the defendants after the conclusion of their trial.
In a five count amended charge filed by the NDLEA, the two defendants who are now convicts were alleged of conspiracy, unauthorized dealing in banned hard drugs ,unlawful distribution of the hard drug and illegal diversion of the said hard drug.
Following the conviction of the two defendants, their counsel, Mr Damian Dodo, (SAN) and Professor Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) in their alocutors, urged the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing of the defendants.
He therefore, urged the court to impose a light a custodian sentences on the convicts.
Responding, the prosecution led by Mr Joseph Ngbona Sunday, the NDLEA’s Director of Legal, told the court that there is no criminal records of the convicts. He however, told the court to take cognisance of the nature of the offence and the alarming rate that drug related offences are increasing in our society.
It would be recalled that men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, had sometimes in 2012 filed a five count charge against the convicts.